Gronk in a Hard Place
by Dash O'Pepper
Summary: Past or future? Has Gronk made the right decision for his family?


**It's About Time** ~ _"Gronk in a Hard Place"  
_by Dash O'Pepper

_It's About Time_ is a registered trademark of Redwood Productions, Gladysya Productions and United Artists Television. This work of fan fiction is not meant in any way to infringe on copyrights already held by these companies and/or their subsidiaries.

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**It had not been a good day for Gronk.**

He sat down wearily on a fallen log and wiped the sweat from his brow with a long, hairy arm. No, he thought as he shifted uncomfortably in the animal skins he wore, it had not been a good day.

The vegetation in this part of the jungle was slowly dying off. Too much cold and too little rain over the last several seasons had made many of the trees barren. He knew it had something to do with "anger-a-culture"; it was the word that Mac had used in teaching him about things that the strange man said were important for survival. Gronk wondered if the "anger" had to do with the Sun god being mad that he and his family didn't have any "culture".

Things were so much different in the land of Mac and Hector. There was no hunting and no foraging, at least you didn't have to if you didn't want to. There were people who lived in a little box. They must have been very powerful and wise because you never saw them, and could barely understand the strangeness of their questions: "May I take yer order" and "do ya wan' fries with tat". Yet, when you went to the temple of the four gold rainbows, the food you asked for was always there.

Gronk looked at the pitiful collection of small, scrawny animals he had caught for his family. Things were not going to be pleasant when he returned to their cave. Shad would be yelling once again about his decision to return the family from Usland. The only time since taking her as mate that he had actually made a decision, and it had to be the wrong one. As much as he liked his new friends, he did not like their land. The water was foul, like a swamp where the animals went to die; the air was little better. And the noise, that was the worst of it.

When the man with the curly hair, big teeth and long, colourful tail (so long that he had to wrap it around himself!) offered to return him and his family, he was willing to go. So, into the blue box with the fire that didn't burn, they went.

But home wasn't like any of them remembered. Shad liked the pretty rocks and soft skins she could wear in the new place. While Breer and Mlor, enjoyed the magic picture box and something that not even Mac could explain - The Beatles. And even Gronk hadn't felt the same about hunting anymore.

"There you are!"

The birds that had been lurking in the trees took off in fear at the shrill sound of his wife's voice. Gronk wished he could join them.

"What have you caught?"

Gronk meekly held up his prizes, fully aware that Shad would not be happy.

"Is that all? There are four of us - soon to be five!"

He shuddered at that. It wasn't unusual for the people of the caves to mate for the fun of mating, but Mlor's mate was in a land that they could no longer reach. His daughter wasn't unhappy about being with child, or sad in losing her mate. She had explained that Mac had told her all about "free love", which meant you could mate, not for life, but with anyone who you wanted for however long you wanted. As Gronk stared at Shad's angry face, he wished his tribe also knew about this "free love"

"I keep telling you, Gronk . . . "

Uh-oh, here it comes, he thought.

"We must leave this place . . . "

The same old argument.

"My cousin and his mate . . . "

He was so very tired of hearing about her family.

"do very well for themselves."

Did this cousin even exist, he thought. He'd remembered receiving a very nice pelt when he took Shad as his mate, but that was the last contact they'd had - and that was nearly 20 winters ago.

"Bedrock is a very good place."

Gronk felt defeated. It was either "dear old cousin Fred" or trying once again to explain to Shad why they couldn't go to the land of Mac and Hector. He looked imploringly at the Sun god, asking him for a sign to help him in this situation.

Shad was waiting for an answer, and her expression told him that she would not be put off this time.

As he was about to reply to his wife's demand, a large flame seemed to stretch from out of the Sun god.

"Oooh-ooh!" Gronk shouted, the Sun god was sending an answer to his prayer. He couldn't believe his luck on this day.

As the flame got closer to them, it became apparent that it was another one of those flying metal birds, like the one that brought the two travellers the last time. Mac and Hector, in their way, had been the source of his trouble now.

The Sun god had spoken.

Gronk looked sheepishly at his wife, and shrugged his shoulders in a way that made it apparent that with the arrival of these new strangers, "there goes the neighbourhood."

Shad smiled in triumph at her mate. "It's about time!" she shouted.

_~ Fin ~_

© 2015 Dash O'Pepper


End file.
